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ANNUAL ADDRESS 






PRESIDENT 



lew (f upland 2H^ovic-0>cncalo^cat Society, 



DELIVERED 



JANUARY 6th, 1864, 



WINSLOW LEWIS, M. D. 



FROM THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEAI.OlilO U. REGISTER. 




ALBANY. N. Y. : 
J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE .STREET. 

18G4. 



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ANNUAL ADDRESS 



PRESIDENT 



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J AN V A It V 6th, 1864, 



WINS LOW LEWIS, M. 1). 



FROM THE SEW EM. LAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. 




ALBANY, N. Y. : 

J. IVIUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 

1864. 



Fi : 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



Gentlemen, Members and Friends of our Society. 

This day — the 6th of January — and the first of our meeting in the 
new year, is an anniversary of no slight note, in the annals alike of 
the Christian church, and in those of the social life of the old "Mother 
Country," from which all derive, not only our descent, but so many 
bright and good old memories, associations, anniversaries, whose 
light, still gently gleaming down upon us, through the portals of the 
Past, gives a soft and mellowed mildness to the otherwise too keen 
and piercing glare of the practical, utilitarian, money-making Present. 
To-day the church celebrates the Feasts of the Epiphany, or the mani- 
festation of the Savior of Mankind by the leading of a star to the 
magi of the east — that event, so beautifully commemorated in Bishop 
Heber's Hymn, which commences, 

" Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, 
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid. 
Star of the east, the horizon adorning, 
Guide where our Infant-Redeemer is laid." 

This day is also an anniversary of joy and feasting in Old England, 
under the name of Twelfth-Day, so full of pleasant memories and 
happy anticipations, especially to the young and light-hearted. " Few 
are unmoved by either agreeable or painful feelings, on account of 
ancient customs coming to their notice. We are in general similarly 
and more affected by recollections of sports familiar and dear to our 
childhood ; which man, more than time, has changed, sometimes, and 
always to our thinking, for the worse." 

If you ask, what have such associations and memories as these to 
do with our society and our meeting to-day? I answer much, very 
much. 

In the first place, without giving countenance to any of those 
superstitious feelings which led the ancient Persians, Greeks and 
Romans to select. fortunate or "lucky days" for the performance of 
any important work, and which even in our own time, make many a 
hardy mariner, who would fearlessly encounter the most terrible 
dangers of the sea, shrink timidly from leaving port on a Friday, 
there is, nevertheless, something cheering and encouraging in enter- 
ing upon any important work, which strongly enlists our interests, 
sympathies and hopes, on a day that has become illumined by fortu- 
nate and happy associations. And thus I hail it as a good omen for 
the increasing success of our society during the ensuing year, that 
we thus hold our first meeting on the blessed and blissful double 
anniversary of the Epiphany and of Twelfth-Day. But something 
more than this has led me to revert to these memories. Such a soci- 
ety as ours, whose labors are mainly devoted to tracing back the 



4 Annual Address of the President. 

history of our country and race, and the biography of our forefathers 
and friends, must, or ought to be, peculiarly alive to the interest and 
importance of those old anniversaries, festivals of the church, festal 
gatherings of the castle, the manor house, the homestead and the 
village green, which form so prominent a feature in the public and 
private life of the old homeland, to which we must still look lovingly 
and reverently back, as the parent and source of all that is best and 
noblest ; whether in the justice and wisdom of our laws, the freedom 
of our political institutions, or the energy, enterprise, perseverance 
and valor, that have raised the citizens and soldiers of America to 
the very front rank, alike of the pioneers of peace and civilization, 
and of the dauntless heroes of the most terrible and deadly war the 
world has ever witnessed. 

We all have much to be thankful for at this opening of the new 
year, and no less ungraceful than ungrateful would it be to leave 
our thanks altogether unexpressed. The heart of each one of us here 
present will suggest many causes for gratitude to the Great and 
Good Being, who has given us to-day, in the midst of all earth's tri- 
als, so much cause for joy and comfort. For myself, at all events, 
who, during the past year, have suffered from an iliness, which, in 
addition to its other trials, has prevented me, for many months, from 
sharing in your conferences and councils — T feel that I owe a deep 
debt of gratitude to the merciful Providence that has thus permitted 
me to resume my wonted place among those who have no less hon- 
ored me by their public confidence, than they have cheered me by 
their private friendship and esteem. 

But, over and above all considerations of a more personal nature, 
1 think you will all agree with me, in deeming it to be a cause of 
congratulation, both to the two kindred countries, and to our society, 
every member of which, the further he pursues his historical and 
genealogical investigations, must feel the bond of relationship between 
New and Old England to be the closer and stronger — that those feel- 
ings of estrangement and almost of hostility, which had unhappily 
arisen between the two great Anglo-Saxon nations, have now been 
very greatly done away with, partly by the acts of the British gov- 
ernment, and still mure., by the free, frank voice of the English people. 
1 think I may venture to say, in the name of our society, that we 
should deprecate estrangement, and much more, hostility, between 
America and England, as a circumstance to be deeply deplored by 
every friend of freedom, civilization and progress. Sprung from a 
common parent stock, speaking the same language, sharing in a 
common heritage of so much of glory, won in every field of thought 
and action, by the great and good of by-gone ages, claiming a just 
and equal portion of the rich intellectual inheritance handed down 
to us from Spencer and Chaucer, Milton and Shakespeare, Goldsmith 
and Johnson, Robertson and Gibbon — united thus by a chain of kin- 
dred, whose links are formed from such firm and fair materials as 
kinship, religion, language, literature, law and freedom, surely we, 
the strong sons of a strong sire, ought to feel that nothing short of 
the most direful necessity ought to be allowed to kindle in our hearts 
any hostile feelings against our " Old nome." 

And now, to turn from external affairs to those more intimately 
connected with our society, I find from the information afforded me 



Annual Address of the President. 5 

by our treasurer, secretaries and librarian, that here we have much 
cause for satisfaction and rejoicing. During the past year, our soci- 
ety lias continued to make good and steady progress. It has added 
many distinguished members, both native and foreign, to its lists, 
and many valuable books and pamphlets to its library, so that to- 
day, we can point with a just pride to a roll of about 500 members, 
and a catalogue of 0,000 volumes, and 10,000 pamphlets. To this 
number, is to be added the donation of the late Lt. Gov. Henry W. 
Cushman, of about 600 books, and 500 copies of the genealogy of 
the Cushman family, the last to be disposed of by the society, the 
proceeds to constitute a separate fund, to be set apart for binding 
&c. The biography of this eminent friend and benefactor of our so- 
ciety, will be given in a short time by our historiographer, and detailed 
in a more faithful and more eloquent manner than I could flatter 
myself to be able to accomplish. If we compare this state of things 
with I ie small beginning of five members, with which the society 
started in 1844, so large a measure of success must equally excite 
our surprise, and stimulate our gratitude towards those officers and 
members, who have been so greatly instrumental in promoting this 
healthy and prosperous condition of our affairs. And, while I know 
that a fair and liberal share of that gratitude is due to the gentle- 
men who have formerly, at different times, occupied the working 
offices amongst us, I am sure you will all agree with me in acknowl- 
edging our deep indebtedness to our present staff, and especially to 
our respected and energetic treasurer, who continues to manage the 
pecuniary affairs of the society with such ability, punctuality and 
zeal. 

I cannot advert, however, to this increasing success of the society, 
particularly in the library department, without once more dwelling 
upon the urgent need there is — more urgent now than ever — for better, 
more capacious, and safer premises. Now, more than ever before, 
we need, first of all, a fire-proof room to secure our books, pamphlets, 
and other documents. The same amount of rare and valuable docu- 
ments on New England genealogy and biography is not to be found 
in the archives of any other society in existence ; and were such a 
calamity as fire to destroy this collection, would be irreparable, not 
only alone to us, but to the people of New England at large. We 
require, also, and the present position of the society imperatively 
demands, that we should have a larger and more commodious hall, 
in which to hold our monthly meetings. Much mutual good would 
result from inviting the attendance of our wives and daughters and 
other ladies, to listen to the monthly lectures, which are as interest- 
ing as, and certaiuly more instructive, than many of a more preten- 
tious character, delivered in other institutions. But a lecture-room, 
to be attractive to a fair and refined audience, ought to afford not 
only sufficient accommodation, but also something of artistic grace 
and beauty. However we may honor the stern simplicity of our 
Puritan ancestors, it can not be denied that greater knowledge of the 
human heart has been shown by those, who, in various ages, have 
striven to give to their ecclesiastical buildings, and other places of 
public resort, all the adornment that architectural science and aes- 
thetic taste could bestow ; and the more cultivated and refined soci- 



6 Annual Address of the President. 

ety becomes, the move need is there for paying careful attention to 
these outer accessories. For my own part, I do not hesitate to say, 
that in visiting- the old cathedrals of England and of the continent 
of Europe, \ have felt my spirit to be raised and solemnized even by 
the architectual grandeur and beauty of the buildings — the long 
and lofty aisles — the rich tracery — the life-like sculpture — and then 
the dim and mellowed light streaming down through the old stained 
windows in their deeply mullioned recesses — and when, with feel- 
ings thus attuned by the eye to the contemplation of the lofty and 
sublime, there has arisen on my ear the grand and swelling peal of 
the organ, pouring forth some sacred, soul-stirring symphony of Men- 
delsohn or Handel, I have felt as though earth and earthly things 
were put away, while in their place there breathed around me the 
spirit and the voice of the holy and the heavenly. 

And the same law of aesthetic association applies to halls devoted 
to the study of science, of history, of art, aye, and let me add even 
of polities, as well as to the edifices consecrated to religion. Well 
was the importance of this fact recognized by the free and enlight- 
ened people of ancient Athens. 

Each temple, hall and portico — nay, every private house of any 
mark in that glorious centre and metropolis of philosophy and sci- 
ence, was not only built in a pure and graceful style of architecture, 
but was adorned with the images and statues of the great and good 
of former ages. By this means in private life, constant lessons of 
valor, virtue and knowledge were afforded to the young, in their 
fathers' homes, while in public, the patriot-orator could point to the 
statutes of Harmodius and Aristogiton — of Cadmus, the patriot king, 
— Miltiades, Aristides, and all the rest of the heroic band who had 
fought and bled and died in defence of Greece's freedom. The teach- 
er of philosopy could illustrate and enforce his lessons by the all but 
breathing images of Pythagoras, of Socrates, and of Plato. The poet 
could derive fresh inspiration from gazing on the rapt features of Ho- 
mer, of ^Eschylus, of Sophocles, of Alcseus and Pindar and Sappho. 
The mathematician was cheered and sustained in his arduous studies 
by contemplating the countenances of Anaxagoras, Anaximander, Eu- 
clid, and the other great Grecian masters of scientific research, to 
whom we, of this modern time, owe so deep and eternal obligations. 
Yes, all Athens was one vast temple, adorned with the images of all 
that was greatest, noblest, best and bravest in that olden time, in 
the muted realms of poetry and philosophy, patriotism, valor and 
learning ; and the high position accorded to her even in the days of 
her decline;, "when captive Greece took captive cenquering Rome," 
sufficiently attests the mighty and marvelous effects of this aesthetic 
teaching ; nor is it less attested by the veneration in which her lan- 
guage ynd literature and remains of art, are held to this day in all 
cultivated communities, as well as by the feeling of melancholy with 
which we think of her departed glory — a feeling so well embodied 
in Byron's words : 

" Ancient of Days ! August Athena! where, 
" Where are thy men of might ? thy grand in soul ? 

■■ Gone ' glimmering through the dream of tilings that were. 
"First in the race that led to Glory's goal, 
" They won and passed away ! — is this the whole ? 



Annual Address of the President. 7 

" A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour ? 
" The warrior's weapon, and the sophist's stole 

" Are sought in vain — and o'er each mouldering tower, 

" Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of Power." 

It must be almost superfluous to point out liow peculiarly the 
example of Athens, is worthy of all possible imitation by such a 
society as ours. Surely, it is not our purpose or mission, to pursue 
our historical and genealogical inquiries, merely for the gratification 
of a spirit of antiquarian curiosity. Our real and ultimate object is 
something far nobler, wider and grander than this, which is, indeed, 
only the necessary means to the end in view. In tracing back the 
genealogical history of our forefathers, the pioneers and planters 
of New England's prosperity and power, we desire to do honor to 
departed worth, and to hold forth its example for the imitation and 
emulation of our own and after generations ; and in this way we 
are hoping and endeavoring to discharge our duty as citizens and 
patriots to our beloved country. To a great extent this is in course 
of accomplishment by means of our Biographical Papers, and by our 
Periodical, The ~N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register; a work 
to which I shall have to allude again. But we are all conscious 
that there is as much force to-day, as in the age of Augustus, in the 
proverb of Horace: — 

" Segnius irritant amnios demissa per aurern, 
" Quain qu?e sunt oculis subjecta lidelibus, et qua) 
" Ipse sibi tradit Spectator." 

Our lectures may do much — the able memoirs of our learned historio- 
graphers may do much — pages of the advertiser may do much, to 
bring the lives and character of our country's worthies before the 
" mind's eye" of ourselves and our children : but to render such 
teaching thoroughly telling and effective, and to enable this society 
to discharge fully and faithfully this, its high and responsible duty, 
of holding up the beacon-light of the Past for the guidiance of our 
youth, through the dangerous shoals and quicksands of the stormy 
Present, we must have over and around and before us in our public 
place of meeting, the presentments, in sculpture or on canvass, of the 
Fathers and friends of American freedom and greatness ; and, on 
the same principle, should be encouraged the preservation, in our 
private residences, of like memorials, ever present to the eye, of our 
progenitors. What more likely to arrest and check a son, about to 
commit some mean, dishonorable or cowardly action, than a sudden, 
unpremeditated glance at the picture or statute of a father or fore- 
fathers, who had left behind him a name consecrated by the memory 
of all that was honorable, manly and noble ? and who shall say what 
powerful influence may be exercised upon the hearts of our members 
and visitors, by seeing before them, whenever they enter our Hall, 
the honored and revered representatives of the heroic Fathers of 
American Independence, the men, who were no less illustrious for 
their private virtues, than for their public services ? Surely the Hall 
of an Historical and Genealogical Society ought, beyond every other 
building, to be richly furnished and adorned with these embodied 
lessons of life-teaching! 

I do trust, that the Society, will at once vigorously take up this 
vitally important subject, and that the year, on which we are entering 



8 Jinnual Address of the President. 

may, before its close, see us located in a building, combining the 
requisites I have enumerated of size, safety, tasteful architecture, and 
pictorial and sculptural adornment. "Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet," 
" He has accomplished half his task, who has begun it," says a Latin 
proverb, and the familiar French one is no less true, " Ce n'est pas que le 
premier pas qui coute," It is only the first step that costs, (or is trou- 
blesome); and I feel quite sure, it only requires this first step, to be 
vigorously and resolutely taken, to insure success. Every member 
can help in some way, if not with a large subscription, yet with a 
small one, — if not with his purse, yet with his personal exertion and 
influence, exercised upon others. Let us realize the duty incumbent 
upon us in this matter, elevate our minds to a proper sense of its 
dignity and importance, and then let us set to, with a strong pull, a 
long pull, and a pull altogether, "and we shall soon bring our boat 
into the wished-for haven of safety, security and success 1" 

And now, permit me to revert again to what I may term the official 
organ of our Society : I menu of course the New England Historical 
and Genealogical Register, a work, whose merits and value, have 
not, I think, been as yet so generally appreciated, as they have 
deserved. Even in the matter of portraits, it constitutes a valuable 
contribution towards that apparatus of pictorial and sculptured 
teaching, on which I have dwelt at some length. There are published 
in the Register, no less than 64 engravings, and with two exceptions 
portraits, with also many wood engravings of the armorial bearings 
of the families recorded in the work, and I mention as among the 
names of our great departed ones, thus preserved ever-present to 
our eye, those of Woodbury and Mather, Chief Justice Sewall, Win- 
throp, Winslow, Chauncy, Oliver Wolcott, Prince, Adams, Trumbull, 
Webster, Parsons and Appleton — it will appear more plainly what a 
valuable repertory of illustrated New England Biography exists in 
this publication. The Register now consists of 17 octavo volumes, 
being a cousecutive series from the year 1841 to the present time; 
and speaking for myself, I can thankfully assert, that as I look 
around my library, my eye does not fall upon any set of volumes 
more graceful in outward appearance, or more valuable, and dear to 
my heart as a New Englander, from the nature of their contents. I 
believe the work to be in every way worthy of the support, not only 
of this Society, but of every patriotic. American, and above all, of 
every son of New' England, to whose heart the memories of the 
Pilgrim Fathers' and their descendants are venerable and dear. We 
owe it to ourselves, to the objects of our Society, and to the interests 
of our common country, to foster and encourage this valuable publi- 
cation, and I trust my appeal in its behalf will not be altogether in 
vain. It may be made, allow me to add, even more than hitherto, a 
powerful means of advocating and advancing the interests and 
objects of our institution. 

I' feel that I have but very weakly and inadequately expressed 
what I have wished to say to you, at this first meeting of our New 
Y-3ar, a year likely, I think and trust, to prove an auspicious and 
happy one in the annals of our Society. But you will, I know, kindly 
make allowance for a deficiency, which is the necessary result of a 
weakened state of health ; and f also kn^w that you will give me 



Annual Address of the President. 9 

credit for sincerity in what I have ventured to suggest or advise. I 
believe my views are practicable and feasible and I am quite sure 
that if carried out by you, they will place the Society on so solid a 
basis, and elevate it to so dignified and useful a position, as will 
render it an organization of the most valuable and beneficial kind to 
America at large, and to New England in particular. Surely, not 
one of us can need any other spur or stimulus to urge us to the 
attainment of so grand, so glorious an object ! 

I can leave no nobler, or more soul-inspiring thought resting on 
your minds, and will therefore close with the Trojan Hero's words : 

" The one best omen is our country's cause !" 



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